District Wildlife Contest

Well, the boys must have been excited this morning...they were up by 4am and dressed and out the door by 6am.  It must be a 4H contest day!  We met up with the rest of the group and were on our way to our first real contest of the year.  We had 3 teams of 4Hers full of anxious pre-contest jitters!  However, we were not the only ones as we looked around at the other 4H and FFA teams, it was easy to see that they were all ready to get started. 

As the members arrived, I gave them their new Wildlife t-shirts.  The shirts say "Lone Star Wildlife team on the front.  On the back, a Davy Crockett quote saying, "Be always sure you are right--then go ahead," followed by Proverbs 16:9.  They all looked so good in their shirts!

I just loved seeing all the first-timers asking last minute questions and wondering how it would all happen.  We stopped to gather together for one last pep-talk and a prayer. 

I talked about how important it was to take a deep breath and remember that it was supposed to be fun and remain calm.  Each of the members was competing against themselves to improve their own score.  Also, we should remember the 4H motto to "make the best better."  Kevin graciously offered to lead the prayer and then we anxiously awaited the contest.

Once started, Lynda and I went around with the coaches group.  As we went from station to station we felt confident with our teams' abilities to do well.  It was especially nice to see the new ones come with their beaming smiles after the compass & pacing course to tell us they scored a perfect score! 

         

After a nice BBQ sandwich lunch we found out that our teams won 1st and 2nd place.  We actually had a tie with our third team and rank was determined by a tie breaker.  All teams should be very proud of their work today!

Two of our teams will now advance to the regional contest on November 2nd.  Looking forward to more time with the entire group as we have enough slots to take them all with extras going as alternates.